“Oh! of course,” she bubbled. “Of course! I remember all about it now. It was Mr. Loving, of course! I had forgotten that he was on the same ship. Philip, you didn’t know that Miss Fairfax was going to marry Lieutenant Loving, did you?”
Mr. Renfrew turned his eye-glasses on the girl, who flushed with mingled anger and amusement.
“Are you a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Mrs. Renfrew,” she inquired, “that you can read the future? I assure you that I have had no advance information on the matter. Mr. Loving hasn’t even asked me yet. But, of course, if you know——”
“Good gracious! Isn’t it true? Why, I got a paper from New York to-day that spoke of it as all settled. The paper is in my state-room now. If you’d like to see it, we’ll go down. Philip, find out all you can about Mr. Howard, and tell us just as soon as you can.”
Mr. Renfrew nodded.
“I’ll go and ask the captain,” he promised, as the two ladies turned away.
The captain, however, proved not to be communicative. Not only was he too busy with the preparations for departure, but he was nettled because the presence of the convict on board had become known. Convicts are not welcome passengers on ships, like the Queen, whose chief office is to carry presumably timid pleasure passengers, and their presence is always carefully concealed.
“I know nothing at all about it, Mr. Renfrew,” he asserted, gruffly. “You had better ask the purser.”
The purser was no more pleased at the inquiry than his chief had been, but he hid his vexation better.
“Yes,” he admitted, with apparent readiness, “Mr. Howard is on board. He was caught here last week. He was up at a village called Lagonitas——”